by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer
At the Sept. 24 meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Sewanee Utility District of Franklin and Marion Counties, the board voted to terminate the contract with the University of the South that grants the utility access to Lake Dimmick during a drought emergency.
Negotiated following the 2007 drought, the contract stipulates that SUD pay the University $10,000 annually for access to Lake Dimmick, as well as 35 cents per 1,000 gallons for the water withdrawn. The board considered a number of factors in reaching the decision to terminate the contract.
The Tracy City water utility currently has a supply and treatment capacity of nearly 1 million gallons per day, enough to serve the needs of Tracy City, Monteagle and Sewanee (200,000–300,000 gallons per day for each town). During the 2007 drought, Tracy City could not meet Monteagle’s needs because its water plant was not operating at full capacity, and SUD sold water to Monteagle.
Tracy City is in the process of raising the dam at its main lake and by this time next year, will double its supply; the utility also plans to construct a new water plant to increase its water treatment capacity.
If SUD purchased water from Tracy City in a drought emergency, SUD would also need to compensate Monteagle for transporting the water from Tracy City to Monteagle. The cost of purchasing water from Tracy City and transporting the water from Tracy City to Monteagle has not been negotiated. In addition, SUD would be responsible for the cost of installing service line and renting a pump to transport the water from Monteagle to Sewanee. SUD manager Ben Beavers estimated that cost at $20,000.
Since the Dimmick contract was signed in February 2008, SUD has paid the University $60,000 for access to the lake. No water has been withdrawn. The last severe drought before the drought of 2007 occurred in 1987.
The University has said that SUD’s annual fee pays for dam repair at Dimmick. In September 2012, Jerry Forster, who was the University’s chief financial officer, addressed the board regarding the Dimmick contract. He said that because the 29-acre lake poses a flood hazard if the dam fails, in the late 1990s the state required the University to repair the earthen dam; the repair cost was $300,000. Forster said the annual fee paid by SUD was earmarked for possible future repairs.
“It is our hope that SUD will maintain a close and collaborative relationship with the University as we move forward,” said SUD commissioner Ken Smith. “We decided unanimously to terminate the agreement and use this money to focus on other issues such as unaccounted-for, treated water loss. This measure, as well as continued conservation by the University and all of our customers, will ensure that we are adequately prepared for the next drought.”
Manager Beavers also noted that SUD’s irrigation demand has decreased since the University installed artificial turf on many of its sports fields.
The Dimmick agreement provided “additional drought emergency insurance,” Beavers said. Commissioner Smith asked what other steps SUD might take to ensure adequate supply. Beavers said leak detection and conservation education were the best mitigation strategies to lessen the impact of drought. The $10,000 annually paid to the University would pay the cost of hiring a firm to do annual leak detection and “eventually all the leaks would be found.”
The board voted to terminate the Lake Dimmick agreement and to allocate funds for drought mitigation efforts. Beavers will ask SUD’s attorney to draft the termination notice.
In other business, manager Beavers presented the board with an overview of the long-range capital improvement budget. Several 2013 capital improvement projects will likely come in under budget, Beavers said.
After a question by Cliff Huffman, board president, Beavers said he would research the cost of paperless-billing software.
The next meeting of the SUD Board of Commissioners is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 22.
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